No doosra. No carrom ball. No other turns. And the tally is 501 wickets in 123 Tests.
Nathan Lyon is a wonder of an off-spinner in the exact sense of the term. In a Test career which began about 12 years ago, he has been an apostle of contrast compared to some of his contemporaries in this trade. He only plays Test cricket — 29 ODIs and two T20Is in all these years are an aberration of sorts — and specialises in taking wickets without those variations.
It’s a marvel of sorts, considering what some of his illustrious peers did. Many of the most notable off-spinners of his time were pulled up, some of them repeatedly, for hurling the ball to the batter with an illegitimate action. They misused the elbow to gain extraordinary returns through the delivery that went the other way, something the late Bishan Bedi was forever vocal about.
Saqlain Mushtaq coined the word doosra. Muthiah Muralitharan, Harbhajan Singh, Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine and many others bowled it. Almost all of them were reported for chucking the ball. The inventor of this leg-break delivered in the disguise of an off-break without a change in action, Sonny Ramadhin, had also come under scrutiny, in the 1950s. The International Cricket Council officially banned the doosra a few years ago.
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The lion’s share of the credit this spinner from New South Wales deserves is for practising his craft without raising questions and eyebrows. There is no jerk of the elbow or debate whether it straightened beyond permissible limits. Everything is text book. It’s a pronounced side-on action, before a smooth pivot getting him in that position to release the ball. By definition and demonstration, chucking is ruled out.
Lyon is not what he is only because of that. He is a thinker. He plans batters out. His record in the sub-continent — 140 wickets in 28 Tests — is phenomenal. He played the lead in some match winning efforts in this part of the world. There are eight and seven-wicket hauls. He is also quite a force at home. Australia have relied solely on him as spinner after Shane Warne. Not many have commanded such faith and trust in a country known for assisting wrist spin.
Historically, Australia have either produced or honed the skills of some of the greatest leg-spinners. Clarrie Grimmett, Bill O’Reilly, Richie Benaud to Warne and others, it’s a long list. Pitches over there are known to be hard with bounce, which facilitate purchase if a spinner uses his or her wrist. They are not naturally conducive for those who use their fingers to impart spin. Traditionally, these decks don’t breed off-spinners.
To have emerged from that country, played so many Tests and to be placed third after Warne and Glenn McGrath in Australia’s all-time chart of wicket-takers is a staggering testimony to Lyon’s art and longevity. There are some very serious names below him in that list. He has played more games than them of course, but he had to be fit and indispensable enough to have earned so many call-ups.
At 36, Lyon is still at the top of his game. He has fewer distractions. He can focus on his work. In Perth against Pakistan, he bowled some huge off-breaks from close to the stumps and also extracted unplayable bounce. In a world of finger spin which had suddenly got confined to a web of weird turns, he has been a breath of fresh air. There is reason to believe that that we will see more of him and his immaculate direction, deception and controlled turn in the months and years to come.